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This woman was the Raheem Sterling of her day

Image caption Lily Parr throwing a javelin during training. She was the first woman to be inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame, in 2002

Lily Parr was a winger and one of the first female professional players.

She played for the Dick Kerr's Ladies team which got its name from the munitions factory in Preston where most of the team worked during World War One. They were the first women's team to play wearing shorts and the first to go on an overseas tour.

Lily was also a smoker and her wages were supplemented by packets of Woodbine cigarettes.

Image caption The Dick Kerr's Ladies team take on the French Ladies International team at Herne Hill, London

Women's matches pulled in enormous crowds

There was a huge growth in women's football during the war when women were called upon to do factory jobs left by the men who had gone to fight.

On Christmas Day in 1917, 10,000 spectators watched two women's teams playing at Preston.

And when Dick Kerr's Ladies played St Helen's Ladies on Boxing Day 1920 they pulled in a crowd of 53,000 at Everton's Goodison Park ground, with thousands more fans locked outside. Everton men's highest attendance this season (2014/15) was 39,000.

Image caption Play during the Theatrical Ladies Football match at Tottenham, north London, in 1912

But then the women's game was effectively banned

On 5 December 1921, the Football Association banned women from playing on FA-affiliated pitches which meant stars like Lily Parr could no longer play at grounds with spectator facilities.

The FA at the time said "the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged".